“You’ve really never done this before, have you?” he murmurs almost sweetly, one hand coming up to tuck my hair behind my ear. “I thought you were bullshitting me, and that I somehow missed some kill or seven you’ve made in the past few years. But this really is new to you.”
I don’t want to answer, because somehow it feels like admitting to a failure of mine to tell Larkin that I’ve never exactly killed anyone on purpose, other than Alan, and even that was partial self-defense.
“So what?” I make myself snap, though my skin burns hot under his direct gaze, even in the dim illumination from themoon above. “Are you my counselor? Are you going to tell me to go home?”
I hate how he can be so quiet and patient, rather than giving me the quick answers I’m used to from Esme. He’s thoughtful, like Cass, and it unnerves me how long he thinks things through sometimes.
But even though he and Cass have some similarities, Larkin is different in all the worst ways. I’ve never thought my childhood best friend was a monster. Hell, even his friends aren’t too bad in my eyes. They have reasons for doing what they do, and for the most part, they’re productive men who lead productive lives outside of their killing.
Even Jed, though I’ve heard stories about his body shed.
Larkin, though?
He’s a monster.
Well, if I’m a monster, he’s the devil. He’s never once given me the impression that he feels bad, or that he feels anything?—
“No.” I blink as his answer cuts through my thoughts like a hot knife through butter.
“No?” I repeat. I’ve already forgotten what I asked, though I’m trying not to let on to that fact.
As per usual, I’m transparent as hell when it comes to him.“No,”Larkin repeats with a small smirk. “I won’t tell you to go home. Besides, you wouldn’t know how to get home from here, anyway.” He glances over my shoulder into the trunk as the man slowly sits up. But unlike what he did with me, he lets him fall all over the place, until the man hits the gravel on his face, going still with a groan.
“Where are we?” I ask, pulling my gaze from the apparently passed-out man to the surrounding area. I can see a light farther up the driveway, I think, and when I squint, I think I see a house.
“Home.”
His answer makes me glance up at him. “What? But you live in an apartment in the city.”
Larkin just shakes his head and reaches up to stroke my jaw, his hand cupping my face as he studies me. “You wanted to play,” he says, without answering my question. His skin is warm against mine, even in the chilly night. “So I’m going to give you a game worth playing. What did you say his name was?”
“No idea,” I breathe with a sigh, barely looking down at the pathetically disgusting man curled up at the trunk of the car, his head dangerously close to the muffler. “Uh, Roger? Robert? Richard?”
“My name’s Dale,” the man groans, his words slurred from the gravel his face is planted against.
“Dale?” I repeat, blinking. “Really?” God, I can just feel Larkin’s judgment from the way he’s staring at me. “Like…seriously?”
The man mumbles an affirmative, making me feel stupid as hell.Dale.How did I not know that?
Larkin sighs and wraps an arm around my shoulders to tug me back against him, then leans down. “Are you going to be good for me while I set up your game?” he asks, in the same voice I ask Yoichi if he wants a nice, frozen rat.
“Is the game worth my time?” I find myself asking, and I look up over my shoulder to meet his eyes in the dark.
I don’t expect his kiss. Larkin wraps me in his arms, his warm jacket somehow curled around my frame as he pulls me tighter against him, his mouth devouring mine. With a whimper, I go up on my toes, knowing that I should slap him or punch him or, even better,stab himfor kidnapping me again.
Instead, I lose myself in the taste of his mouth, the feel of his tongue, and the sharpness of his teeth as they worry at my bottom lip. “The game will be very worth your time,” he assuresme, not pulling away, whispering the words against my lips. “So long as you’re committed to winning it.”
He doesn’t let me remark on that. Larkin pulls away with one last brush of his thumb against my lower lip, and strides forward to pick up Dale, tossing him over his shoulder like a bag of trash he’s about to deposit in the dumpster.
Like an obedient dog, I follow him up the driveway, too stunned to do anything else. In the near-dark, the only sounds are the crunch of gravel under our feet, and the few noises Dale makes when Larkin has to resettle him over his shoulder, though he’s not exactly gentle about it.
The motion light on the house makes me jump when it comes on, flooding the patio with light and prompting Larkin to pause. When he turns to look at me, the moonlight makes his eyes shine silver. “Stay here,” he says suddenly, thoughtfully. “I’ll come get you.”
Without waiting for me to answer, he walks into the house, the door closing hard behind him.
Leaving me completely alone.
Wind rustles in the nearby trees, and belatedly I dig my phone out of my pocket, wishing I still had my box cutter. While being alone in the dark doesn’t scare me, something about beingheredoes, though I’m not sure if it’s because of Larkin or something else.
